Meet Taleah

Meet this months cancer cutie, the gorgeous Taleah! She is such a beauty inside and out and we pray every day this sweet girl will kick cancers butt for the 2nd time!! Read her story below. XOXO

Taleah was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on August 26th, 2011. She completed 2 1/2 years of treatment and she was cancer free for 4 months. As of March 24th, 2014 the cancer has returned. She will be fighting for her life, for a second
time.

Taleah comes from a big family and is the oldest
sister to a three year old brother and to 4 month old twin
sister and brother. She loves being a cheerleader and can bust a move like
nobodies business!

I guess you could say that a mother's intuition means
something. Taleah had been acting "off" for the last week. I had a
terrible feeling going into our upcoming appointment at PCMC. I even shared
that with my dad and I don't think that he liked hearing that from me. We
headed to PCMC (Friday), did the routine "stuff" and the labs showed
that her platelets had dropped a little. Dr. Barnette didn't seem concerned and
even looked under the microscope and had a great explanation for
it.

Taleah even rang the bell because she was cancer free!
I still left feeling a little uneasy and couldn't figure out why. Now I know. She
started fevering the following Thursday and it continued and hasn't stopped. I
began obsessing over ALL information, dropping platelets, contacted other
cancer moms, and couldn't get it out of my mind. I even texted our pediatrician
on Saturday asking if I should get her labs drawn again. He wanted to wait
until Monday, which I am glad that we did. We were all thinking/hoping it could
be a virus that was causing the drop in platelets (that is a sign of relapse...
along with a jump in WBS which hers had done as well). I just knew in my gut
that something wasn't right. Labs came and I kept checking for the results. I
honestly couldn't function. My MIL had to take my kids because I made myself
physically sick over it. After a few phone calls and lots of tears, it was
confirmed. We were expected at PCMC the next morning at 8am. The drive was long
and trying to break the news to her was devastating. She became very quiet and
wouldn't talk about it. That was one of the hardest things I have had to do.
PCMC wanted to do their own testing to confirm it. There was a small chance
that it could be a crazy virus but I knew it wasn't. Of course I hoped for
that, but hearing the confirmation again was a giant blow to my stomach.
Watching Taleah hear it all just about ripped my heart in half because this
time she has a better idea of what is to come. We continued with an x-ray,
labs, and making her comfortable. Her blood had about 50% leukemia cells. We
would await the procedures to come the next day to have a better idea of what
we were dealing with. I am having a whirlwind of emotions. I am angry, so sad
for Taleah, sad for my other kids, mad, heartbroken and a little hopeful. It is
a lot harder to feel "hopeful" this time when the odds were so good
before and she was in the 8% that relapse. How can this be?! It is not anything
that I ever hoped for and didn't "see it coming" until a week
ago.

The first month is critical! We need to get her body
into remission after the first 28 days. This will give us the most hope. IF
that happens, we will have finished one round with a week at home to follow. We
would have 2 more rounds simlar to that. All of which will be done at PCMC. IF
all goes according, it would mean preparing her for a bone marrow transplant
(which would happen after the 2-3 months of inpt chemo). We will be testing our
3 kids this week to see if they are a match for sweet Taleah. A sibling match
would be the best case scenario (the babies would have to be a certain weight
as well). It wouldn't be dangerous for them to be her donor. We also have
Tait's cord blood that we could test as well. Sloan's isn't viable because his
was wrapped around his neck and we had to cut it at birth. The transplant would
be approx 35-60 days inpt and then staying close to PCMC for another 40-50 days
after that. It is a long road, a scary road and we are praying that all can go
accordingly. We appreciate all of the love and support that has already been
offered on our behalf.

So sorry to hear about her relapse. My son had ALL and has been done with treatment for about 2 years now. I relate so much to trusting your instincts and the sadness you have for your child. Somehow cancer only affects those amazing kids that seem to take it all it stride and become better because of it. Wishing you the best!